The interweaving of diaries and lives : diary-keeping behaviour in a diary-interview study of international students’ employability management

This article explores ‘diary-keeping behaviour’, or the ways in which participants conduct the completion and submission of diaries in diary research. There is a paucity of methodologically oriented literature on diary method and as such this article makes a contribution to extending the existing knowledge of this method. The primary aim of this article is to set out in detail the key issues relating to diary-keeping behaviour, in order to provide a foundation for future critical explorations of this facet of diary research. The research that this paper is based on involved a 12-month diary-interview study. This project explored the employability management of Chinese international Master’s students in social sciences studying in the UK during one academic year. The article sets out key facets of diary-keeping behaviour and explores specific considerations for diary studies in higher education contexts, where diary research has been particularly neglected

Using Initial State Radiation (ISR) Jets for SUSY Search

To search for the hypothesized SUSY particles, physicists have to create algorithms or cuts to separate signals from the unwanted background events. Cuts are easy to apply to a dataset, but are not always very efficient at selecting the signal being analyzed. In this study, we analyzed the plausibility and effectiveness of using ISR jet pseudorapidity and ISR jet Pt cuts on the T2tt signal sample from the CMS detector to separate the signal from the background. After graphing the Pt and pseudorapidity per event graphs, we concluded that an ISR jet Pt cut would be an effective cut, but and ISR pseudorapidity cut would not be effective. We determined that an ISR jet Pt cut around 350 GeV would be effective at increasing the ratio of signal events to background events because below 350 GeV, there are significantly more background events than signal events. ISR jets appear in a large amount of particle interactions, so although our findings only are for the T2tt signal, it is highly likely that these findings could be applied to other signals that are being analyzed for the search for supersymmetry

Using Initial State Radiation (ISR) Jets for SUSY Search

To search for the hypothesized SUSY particles, physicists have to create algorithms or cuts to separate signals from the unwanted background events. Cuts are easy to apply to a dataset, but are not always very efficient at selecting the signal being analyzed. In this study, we analyzed the plausibility and effectiveness of using ISR jet pseudorapidity and ISR jet Pt cuts on the T2tt signal sample from the CMS detector to separate the signal from the background. After graphing the Pt and pseudorapidity per event graphs, we concluded that an ISR jet Pt cut would be an effective cut, but and ISR pseudorapidity cut would not be effective. We determined that an ISR jet Pt cut around 350 GeV would be effective at increasing the ratio of signal events to background events because below 350 GeV, there are significantly more background events than signal events. ISR jets appear in a large amount of particle interactions, so although our findings only are for the T2tt signal, it is highly likely that these findings could be applied to other signals that are being analyzed for the search for supersymmetry

Using Initial State Radiation (ISR) Jets for SUSY Search

Atoms are small particles that make up the world around us. The word “atom” came from the Greek word “atomos”, which means indivisible. However, atoms are not the smallest particle that we know of today. For example, atoms are all made up of neutrons, protons, and electrons, which then consist of smaller subatomic particles called elementary particles - shown on the left side of Figure 1.1

In two places at once : the impact of caring responsibilities on academic's conference participation : final project report

The study departs from the perspective that conferences are important but neglected research sites. Equality and diversity studies of the academic profession tend to focus on issues of care in relation to higher education institutions, rather than professional spaces that academics circulate in outside of their ‘home’ institution/s. Studies of care and the academic profession and/or mobility seldom focus on conferences. Therefore this study fills a gap in knowledge about academics, care and conferences. Conferences come to represent a particular type of challenge for care, because they are interruptions to the care routine. Challenges relating to care and conferences can involve the challenges of being accompanied to the conference and managing the dual role of care-giver and conference attendee, and/or ensuring that ongoing care support is provided at home during the conference

Lung gene therapy—How to capture illumination from the light already present in the tunnel

AbstractGene therapy has been considered as the most ideal medical intervention for genetic diseases because it is intended to target the cause of diseases instead of disease symptoms. Availability of techniques for identification of genetic mutations and for in vitro manipulation of genes makes it practical and attractive. After the initial hype in 1990s and later disappointments in clinical trials for more than a decade, light has finally come into the tunnel in recent years, especially in the field of eye gene therapy where it has taken big strides. Clinical trials in gene therapy for retinal degenerative diseases such as Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA) and choroideremia demonstrated clear therapeutic efficacies without apparent side effects. Although these successful examples are still rare and sporadic in the field, they provide the proof of concept for harnessing the power of gene therapy to treat genetic diseases and to modernize our medication. In addition, those success stories illuminate the path for the development of gene therapy treating other genetic diseases. Because of the differences in target organs and cells, distinct barriers to gene delivery exist in gene therapy for each genetic disease. It is not feasible for authors to review the current development in the entire field. Thus, in this article, we will focus on what we can learn from the current success in gene therapy for retinal degenerative diseases to speed up the gene therapy development for lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis

Predictors of Treatment with Duloxetine or Venlafaxine XR among Adult Patients Treated for Depression in Primary Care Practices in the United Kingdom

Background. Knowledge about real-world use of duloxetine and venlafaxine XR to treat depression in the UK is limited. Aims. To identify predictors of duloxetine or venlafaxine XR initiation. Method. Adult depressed patients who initiated duloxetine or venlafaxine XR between January 1, 2006 and September 30, 2007 were identified in the UK's General Practice Research Database. Demographic and clinical predictors of treatment initiation with duloxetine and venlafaxine XR were identified using logistic regression. Results. Patients initiating duloxetine (n = 909) were 4 years older than venlafaxine XR recipients (n = 1286). Older age, preexisting unexplained pain, respiratory disease, and pre-period use of anticonvulsants, opioids, and antihyperlipidemics were associated with increased odds of initiating duloxetine compared to venlafaxine XR. Pre-period anxiety disorder was associated with decreased odds of receiving duloxetine. Conclusion. Initial treatment choice with duloxetine versus venlafaxine XR was primarily driven by patient-specific mental and medical health characteristics. General practitioners in the UK favor duloxetine over venlafaxine XR when pain conditions coexist with depression

Estrogenic modulation of uropathogenic Escherichia coli infection pathogenesis in a murine menopause model

Recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs), primarily caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), annually affect over 13 million patients in the United States. Menopausal women are disproportionally susceptible, suggesting estrogen deficiency is a significant risk factor for chronic and recurrent UTI. How estrogen status governs susceptibility to UTIs remains unknown, and whether hormone therapy protects against UTIs remains controversial. Here, we used a mouse model of surgical menopause by ovariectomy and demonstrate a protective role for estrogen in UTI pathogenesis. We found that ovariectomized mice had significantly higher bacteriuria, a more robust inflammatory response, and increased production of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) upon UPEC infection compared to sham-operated controls. We further show that response of the urothelial stem cell niche to infection, normally activated to restore homeostasis after infection, was aberrant in ovariectomized mice with defective superficial urothelial cell differentiation. Finally, UPEC-infected ovariectomized mice showed a significant increase in quiescent intracellular bacterial reservoirs, which reside in the urothelium and can seed recurrent infections. Importantly, this and other ovariectomy-induced outcomes of UTI were reversible upon estrogen supplementation. Together, our findings establish ovariectomized mice as a model for UTIs in menopausal women and pinpoint specific events during course of infection that are most susceptible to estrogen deficiency. These findings have profound implications for the understanding of the role of estrogen and estrogen therapy in bladder health and pathogen defense mechanisms and open the door for prophylaxis for menopausal women with recurrent UTIs

NCP activates chloroplast transcription by controlling phytochrome-dependent dual nuclear and plastidial switches.

Phytochromes initiate chloroplast biogenesis by activating genes encoding the photosynthetic apparatus, including photosynthesis-associated plastid-encoded genes (PhAPGs). PhAPGs are transcribed by a bacterial-type RNA polymerase (PEP), but how phytochromes in the nucleus activate chloroplast gene expression remains enigmatic. We report here a forward genetic screen in Arabidopsis that identified NUCLEAR CONTROL OF PEP ACTIVITY (NCP) as a necessary component of phytochrome signaling for PhAPG activation. NCP is dual-targeted to plastids and the nucleus. While nuclear NCP mediates the degradation of two repressors of chloroplast biogenesis, PIF1 and PIF3, NCP in plastids promotes the assembly of the PEP complex for PhAPG transcription. NCP and its paralog RCB are non-catalytic thioredoxin-like proteins that diverged in seed plants to adopt nonredundant functions in phytochrome signaling. These results support a model in which phytochromes control PhAPG expression through light-dependent double nuclear and plastidial switches that are linked by evolutionarily conserved and dual-localized regulatory proteins

Major Merger Galaxy Pairs at z = 0: Dust Properties and Companion Morphology

We present an analysis of dust properties of a sample of close major-merger galaxy pairs selected by K_s magnitude and redshift. The pairs represent the two populations of spiral–spiral (S+S) and mixed morphology spiral–elliptical (S+E). The Code Investigating GALaxy Emission software is used to fit dust models to the Two Micron All Sky Survey, Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, and Herschel flux density measurements, and to derive the parameters describing the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons contribution, interstellar radiation field, and photodissociation regions. Model fits verify our previous Spitzer Space Telescope analysis that S+S and S+E pairs do not have the same level of enhancement of star formation and differ in dust composition. The spirals of mixed-morphology galaxy pairs do not exhibit the enhancements in interstellar radiation field and therefore dust temperature for spirals in S+S pairs in contrast to what would be expected according to standard models of gas redistribution due to encounter torques. This suggests the importance of the companion environment/morphology in determining the dust properties of a spiral galaxy in a close major-merger pair